U.S. Says C.I.A. Destroyed 92 Tapes of Interrogations

WASHINGTON — The government on Monday revealed for the first time the extent of the destruction of videotapes in 2005 by the Central Intelligence Agency, saying that agency officers destroyed 92 videotapes documenting the harsh interrogations of two Qaeda suspects in C.I.A. detention.

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The disclosure came in a letter filed by federal prosecutors investigating the destruction of the tapes in November 2005.

It had been previously known that officials of the agency had destroyed hundreds of hours of videotaped interrogations, but the documents filed Monday reveal the number of tapes.

The tapes had been held in a safe at the C.I.A. station in Thailand, the country where two detainees — Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri — were interrogated.

The filing of the documents, submitted to a court in New York as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, came as federal prosecutors were wrapping up the investigation into the matter.

The criminal investigation, begun in January 2008, is being led by John H. Durham, a career prosecutor from Connecticut with long experience trying organized-crime cases.

The order to destroy the tapes was given by Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., who at the time was the head of the spy agency’s clandestine service. Prosecutors have spent months trying to piece together whether anyone besides Mr. Rodriguez
authorized the destruction and to decide whether anyone should be indicted in the matter.

The tapes were destroyed as Congress and the courts were intensifying their scrutiny of the agency’s detention and interrogation program.

The civil liberties union is asking a judge to hold the agency in contempt for destroying the tapes.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on the matter on Monday.

The destroyed videotapes are thought to have depicted some of the harshest interrogation techniques used by the C.I.A. during the two years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, including the simulated drowning technique called
waterboarding.

In a speech on Monday in Washington, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said that “waterboarding is torture” and that he would never authorize the technique, a position he first articulated in his confirmation hearings.

Mr. Holder is leading a review to determine which interrogation techniques should be authorized for C.I.A. use.

According to the letter that was filed, the agency has asked to have until Friday to produce a schedule for the court detailing when it will turn over a number of records associated with the destruction of the tapes, including
a list of witnesses who might have viewed the videotapes before they were destroyed.

Mr. Durham has made no public statements about when he will conclude his investigation.

Last year, however, he asked that freedom-of-information requests directed at the agency be held in abeyance until he wrapped up the criminal inquiry. He asked at that time to have until the end of February to conclude his work,
and he has not asked for another extension.

A version of this article appeared in print on March 3, 2009, on page A16 of the New York edition.